Cooking Yellow Pumpkin-Based Culinary

By Kresensia R. Efrieno.          

Yellow pumpkin with the Latin name Cucurbita moschata is a woody plant commonly found in Indonesia. This plant has bell-shaped yellow flowers with dark green and yellow-brown fruit. The nutritional content of 100 grams of pumpkin is 93.69 g water, 20 g calories (Cal) energy, 0.72 g protein, 0.07 g fat, 4.9 g carbohydrates, 1.1 g fiber, 15 milligrams calcium (mg), iron 0.57 mg, magnesium 9 mg, phosphorus 30 mg and potassium 230 mg. Generally, pumpkin is consumed as a mixture of compote, pudding, cake, and soup using the process of steaming, boiling, sautéing, grilling, and roasting.

Yellow pumpkin is one of the answers to the Local Food Initiative: Processing Yellow Pumpkin into various products at the Sekretariat of Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta (Saturday, 16/09/2023). The training invited several students from various regional backgrounds and majors to enrich their knowledge about local food, getting to know pumpkin and its derivative products as a variety of culinary products.

Trustha Rembaka, S.Th, coordinator of Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta explored students' insights about processing pumpkin in their own regions. Most said that they processed pumpkin into vegetables and compote. However, some say that they process pumpkin seeds into a side dish by roasting them, as it is done in Sumba and Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara.

They became more open in their culinary insights when Prihartanti, who is familiarly called Mbak Tanti, a culinary practitioner, shared her experience of processing yellow pumpkin into various interesting culinary products, such as pudding, steamed sponge cake, donuts, pumpkin flour, dried pumpkin seed, and pumpkin sticks. "Yellow pumpkin can be processed into various products for sale. Today, we are practicing four easy- cheap recipes and suitable for boarding house students like you by using daily cooking utensils. We’ll make  donuts, pudding, steamed sponge cake, and stick," she said.

They seemed enthusiastic in the practical session because they could do the processing themselves. The basic ingredients for donuts, steamed sponge cake, and sticks use a combination of steamed pumpkin and flour, while pudding uses steamed pumpkin and gelatin flour. The process of making these 4 recipes is carried out in turns and each participant practiced and noted, even documented the ingredients and method of making them. This activity lasted for one day work until the product was ready to eat.

Through the activity, the students have a new practice to initiate local food culinary sold to the market for pocket money. Local food processing is an opportunity for anyone, including young people having enthusiasm and creativity. So, local food has potency, right? Come on, take advantage to do enterprise by processing the food potency of the nation.***